The Experimental Study of Behaviour In Economics (original) (raw)
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Experimental Practices in Economics: A Challenge for Psychologists?
1998
We discuss four key variables of experimental design that tend to be realized quite differentlyin economics and in areas of psychology relevant to both economists and psychologists, suchas judgment and decision making. On theoretical and empirical grounds, we argue that thesedifferent realizations, which concern enactment of scripts, repetition of trials, performancebasedmonetary payments, and the use of deception, are bound to
Essays in Behavioral and Experimental Economics
2006
Behavioral economics aims to provide more realistic psychological foundations for economic models. Experimental methods can contribute to this effort by providing the ability to identify causal processes and motivations that can be confounded in field settings. The essays in this dissertation examine three critical issues in behavioral economics using lab and field experiments. The first two essays examine two core elements of economic rationality; expected utility theory and Bayesian updating. The essays consider, respectively, ambiguity, and information cascades, in environments in which limitations of the theories can be studied. The third essay examines a contracting game in which other-regarding preferences are explicitly considered. Decision making under ambiguity has been of interest to economists since the 1920's (Knight (1921), Keynes (1921)). It has received renewed attention due to the work
T. Kawagoe & H. Takizawa (Eds.), Diversity of Experimental Methods in Economics (pp. 177-183), 2019
In this paper, I will briefly defend two claims that, I believe, put the “experimental turn” in economics into the broader historical and philosophical perspective. First, I argue that the adoption of experimental method should be seen as part of the general tendency of recent economics to become more empirical. It helped decisively to recognize the context-dependence of economic agency and economic rationality. This tendency invites us to rethink current economics in view of the famous Methodenstreit and to ask anew how it can be not just a social, but a cultural and an historical science. Thus, apart from marking a turn in the intellectual history of economics, experiments demonstrate the ways economics itself may turn (in)to history. Second, and related issue, concerns the relevance of experimental economics for policy. Here, I suggest that it is instructive to look at the current debates in view of a classical agency-structure dualism familiar from social theory. It is this dualism—implying both tension between and attempts to reconcile agency and structure— that is invoked when discussing policy prospects of experimental (and behavioral) research. In particular, what exactly should be changed as a result of a given policy (be it in view of promoting the welfare or increasing efficiency, or similar concerns economists address)? Answering this question by referring to the interplay between agency and structure may additionally illuminate important methodological aspects of experimental economic research.
In contrast to sciences such as physics, chemistry and psychology, using experimental methods in economics has encountered significant resistance reaching as far back as Mill. The basic reason for the resistance is the widely accepted view that experiment is not suited to analyzing complex human activity including economic behaviors. However, experimental studies, which started to test economics theories from the 1940s, have now reached an important point. The purpose of this study is to show how economics arrived to this point and outline the effect of experimental studies on the future of economics.
Mind & Society, 2010
Can human social cognitive processes and social motives be grasped by the methods of experimental economics? Experimental studies of strategic cognition and social preferences contribute to our understanding of the social aspects of economic decisions making. Yet, papers in this issue argue that the social aspects of decision-making introduce several difficulties for interpreting the results of economic experiments. In particular, the laboratory is itself a social context, and in many respects a rather distinctive one, which raises questions of external validity.
Experimental economics will foster a renaissance of economic theory
Journal of economic behavior & organization, 2010
Vernon Smith, in his penetrating essay,“Theory and Experiment,” draws on his broad knowledge of experiments to suggest that subject behavior often diverges from game theoretic predictions, and in many cases there are no known correctives. The subtitle of his essay,“What are the Questions?” suggests that minor fudging with theory is unlikely to solve our problems because “circumstances unknown to us” are responsible for the failure of contemporary economic theory. This is precisely the set of issues with which I deal in The ...
Experimental practices in economics: A methodological challenge for psychologists?
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2001
This target article is concerned with the implications of the surprisingly different experimental practices in economics and in areas of psychology relevant to both economists and psychologists, such as behavioral decision making. We consider four features of experimentation in economics, namely, script enactment, repeated trials, performance-based monetary payments, and the proscription against deception, and compare them to experimental practices in psychology, primarily in the area of behavioral decision making. ...
Experiments in Economics and Philosophy
Economics and Philosophy, 2013
Not so long ago, many economists and philosophers felt that their disciplines had no use for experimental methods. An experimental study was, by its nature, ‘not economics’ or ‘not philosophy’ – psychology maybe. Opinion has changed dramatically. This issue of Economics and Philosophy represents a collection of recent contributions to experimental research that explicitly deal with empirical findings or methodological questions in the intersection of the two disciplines. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first such collection dedicated to addressing these common interests.
The Methodology of Experimental Economics
2005
The experimental approach in economics is a driving force behind some of the most exciting developments in the field. The 'experimental revolution' was based on a series of bold philosophical premises which have remained until now mostly unexplored. This book provides the first comprehensive analysis and critical discussion of the methodology of experimental economics, written by a philosopher of science with expertise in the field. It outlines the fundamental principles of experimental inference in order to investigate their power, scope and limitations. The author demonstrates that experimental economists have a lot to gain by discussing openly the philosophical principles that guide their work, and that philosophers of science have a lot to learn from their ingenious techniques devised by experimenters in order to tackle difficult scientific problems.